我们研究有限树和无限词上正则语言的稀疏性概念。若一个树语言中 n 节点树的相对数量趋于零，则称该树语言是稀疏的；若一个无限词语言在伯努利概率空间中具有零测度，则称该无限词语言是稀疏的。我们证明稀疏性对于正则树语言和无限词上的正则语言是可判定的。对于树，我们给出了基于禁止子树和树自动机的刻画，从而得到一个线性时间判定过程。对于无限词，我们给出了通过中缀完备性的刻画，并给出了可判定性的一个新证明。此外，在非稀疏情形下，我们的算法计算出一个被接受词的可测子集，该子集可在几乎必然模型检验中充当反例。我们的发现可应用于形式验证中基于自动机的模型检验以及 XML 模式等领域。
英文摘要：
We study the notion of sparseness for regular languages over finite trees and infinite words. A language of trees is called sparse if the relative number of $n$-node trees in the language tends to zero, and a language of infinite words is called sparse if it has measure zero in the Bernoulli probability space. We show that sparseness is decidable for regular tree languages and for regular languages of infinite words. For trees, we provide characterisations in terms of forbidden subtrees and tree automata, leading to a linear time decision procedure. For infinite words, we present a characterisation via infix completeness and give a novel proof of decidability. Moreover, in the non-sparse case, our algorithm computes a measurable subset of accepted words that can serve as counterexamples in almost-sure model checking. Our findings have applications to automata based model checking in formal verifications and XML schemas, among others.
We show that the equivalence of deterministic linear top-down tree-to-word transducers is decidable in polynomial time. Linear tree-to-word transducers are non-copying but not necessarily order-preserving and can be used to express XML and other document transformations. The result is based on a partial normal form that provides a basic characterization of the languages produced by linear tree-to-word transducers.
We explore a natural class of semigroups that have word problem decidable by finite state automata. Among the main results are invariance of this property under change of generators, invariance under basic algebraic constructions and algebraic properties of these semigroups.
We consider two-variable first-order logic $\text{FO}^2$ and its quantifier alternation hierarchies over both finite and infinite words. Our main results are forbidden patterns for deterministic automata (finite words) and for Carton-Michel automata (infinite words). In order to give concise patterns, we allow the use of subwords on paths in finite graphs. This concept is formalized as subword-patterns. For certain types of subword-patterns there exists a non-deterministic logspace algorithm to decide their presence or absence in a given automaton. In particular, this leads to $\mathbf{NL}$ al…
The value 1 problem is a decision problem for probabilistic automata over finite words: given a probabilistic automaton, are there words accepted with probability arbitrarily close to 1? This problem was proved undecidable recently; to overcome this, several classes of probabilistic automata of different nature were proposed, for which the value 1 problem has been shown decidable. In this paper, we introduce yet another class of probabilistic automata, called leaktight automata, which strictly subsumes all classes of probabilistic automata whose value 1 problem is known to be decidable. We pro…
A word is called a reset word for a deterministic finite automaton if it maps all the states of the automaton to a unique state. Deciding about the existence of a reset word of a given maximum length for a given automaton is known to be an NP-complete problem. We prove that it remains NP-complete even if restricted to Eulerian automata with binary alphabets, as it has been conjectured by Martyugin (2011).
Splicing as a binary word/language operation is inspired by the DNA recombination under the action of restriction enzymes and ligases, and was first introduced by Tom Head in 1987. Shortly thereafter, it was proven that the languages generated by (finite) splicing systems form a proper subclass of the class of regular languages. However, the question of whether or not one can decide if a given regular language is generated by a splicing system remained open. In this paper we give a positive answer to this question. Namely, we prove that, if a language is generated by a splicing system, then it…
The value 1 problem is a decision problem for probabilistic automata over finite words: given a probabilistic automaton A, are there words accepted by A with probability arbitrarily close to 1? This problem was proved undecidable recently. We sharpen this result, showing that the undecidability result holds even if the probabilistic automata have only one probabilistic transition. Our main contribution is to introduce a new class of probabilistic automata, called leaktight automata, for which the value 1 problem is shown decidable (and PSPACE-complete). We construct an algorithm based on the c…
A set X of partial words over a finite alphabet A is called unavoidable if every two-sided infinite word over A has a factor compatible with an element of X. Unlike the case of a set of words without holes, the problem of deciding whether or not a given finite set of n partial words over a k-letter alphabet is avoidable is NP-hard, even when we restrict to a set of partial words of uniform length. So classifying such sets, with parameters k and n, as avoidable or unavoidable becomes an interesting problem. In this paper, we work towards this classification problem by investigating the maximum …
In this thesis we use quasiorders on words to offer a new perspective on two well-studied problems from Formal Language Theory: deciding language inclusion and manipulating the finite automata representations of regular languages. First, we present a generic quasiorder-based framework that, when instantiated with different quasiorders, yields different algorithms (some of them new) for deciding language inclusion. We then instantiate this framework to devise an efficient algorithm for searching with regular expressions on grammar-compressed text. Finally, we define a framework of quasiorder-ba…
The edit distance between two words $w_1, w_2$ is the minimal number of word operations (letter insertions, deletions, and substitutions) necessary to transform $w_1$ to $w_2$. The edit distance generalizes to languages $\mathcal{L}_1, \mathcal{L}_2$, where the edit distance from $\mathcal{L}_1$ to $\mathcal{L}_2$ is the minimal number $k$ such that for every word from $\mathcal{L}_1$ there exists a word in $\mathcal{L}_2$ with edit distance at most $k$. We study the edit distance computation problem between pushdown automata and their subclasses. The problem of computing edit distance to a pu…
We study several problems related to finding reset words in deterministic finite automata. In particular, we establish that the problem of deciding whether a shortest reset word has length k is complete for the complexity class DP. This result answers a question posed by Volkov. For the search problems of finding a shortest reset word and the length of a shortest reset word, we establish membership in the complexity classes FP^NP and FP^NP[log], respectively. Moreover, we show that both these problems are hard for FP^NP[log]. Finally, we observe that computing a reset word of a given length is…
A word $u=u_1\dots u_n$ is a scattered factor of a word $w$ if $u$ can be obtained from $w$ by deleting some of its letters: there exist the (potentially empty) words $v_0,v_1,..,v_n$ such that $w = v_0u_1v_1...u_nv_n$. The set of all scattered factors up to length $k$ of a word is called its full $k$-spectrum. Firstly, we show an algorithm deciding whether the $k$-spectra for given $k$ of two words are equal or not, running in optimal time. Secondly, we consider a notion of scattered-factors universality: the word $w$, with $\letters(w)=Σ$, is called $k$-universal if its $k$-spectrum includes…
Register automata extend classical finite automata with a finite set of registers that can store data from an infinite data domain for later equality comparisons with data from an input data word. While the registers in the original model of register automata, introduced in 1994 by Kaminski and Francez, can only store data occurring in the data word processed so far, we study here the more expressive class of register automata with guessing, where registers can nondeterministically take any value from the infinite data domain, even if this data does not occur in the input data word. It is well…
Partially ordered nondeterminsitic finite automata (poNFAs) are NFAs whose transition relation induces a partial order on states, that is, for which cycles occur only in the form of self-loops on a single state. A poNFA is universal if it accepts all words over its input alphabet. Deciding universality is PSPACE-complete for poNFAs, and we show that this remains true even when restricting to a fixed alphabet. This is nontrivial since standard encodings of alphabet symbols in, e.g., binary can turn self-loops into longer cycles. A lower coNP-complete complexity bound can be obtained if we requi…
Ordering the collection of states of a given automaton starting from an order of the underlying alphabet is a natural move towards a computational treatment of the language accepted by the automaton. Along this path, Wheeler \emph{graphs} have been recently introduced as an extension/adaptation of the Burrows-Wheeler Transform (the now famous BWT, originally defined on strings) to graphs. These graphs constitute an important data-structure for languages, since they allow a very efficient storage mechanism for the transition function of an automaton, while providing a fast support to all sorts …
Consider a non-standard numeration system like the one built over the Fibonacci sequence where nonnegative integers are represented by words over $\{0,1\}$ without two consecutive 1. Given a set $X$ of integers such that the language of their greedy representations in this system is accepted by a finite automaton, we consider the problem of deciding whether or not $X$ is a finite union of arithmetic progressions. We obtain a decision procedure for this problem, under some hypothesis about the considered numeration system. In a second part, we obtain an analogous decision result for a particula…
We show that, given a word equation over a finitely generated free group, the set of all solutions in reduced words forms an EDT0L language. In particular, it is an indexed language in the sense of Aho. The question of whether a description of solution sets in reduced words as an indexed language is possible has been been open for some years, apparently without much hope that a positive answer could hold. Nevertheless, our answer goes far beyond: they are EDT0L, which is a proper subclass of indexed languages. We can additionally handle the existential theory of equations with rational constra…
